Home is Imagination by Kai Johnson

A wide, whimsical digital illustration featuring a chaotic and playful scene. There is a pink house with a face and a giant pencil, flying paper, a UFO, stacks of books, cows, scissors, a rubber duck, a board game path, and dozens of quirky characters and objects scattered across a grassy landscape. The clouds, the sun, and a few other objects are taped to the background, implying the world they inhabit is completely drawn on paper.“Home is Imagination” by Kai Johnson
A wide, whimsical digital illustration featuring a chaotic and playful scene. There is a pink house with a face and a giant pencil, flying paper, a UFO, stacks of books, cows, scissors, a rubber duck, a board game path, and dozens of quirky characters and objects scattered across a grassy landscape. The clouds, the sun, and a few other objects are taped to the background, implying the world they inhabit is completely drawn on paper.
A wide, whimsical digital illustration featuring a chaotic and playful scene. There is a pink house with a face and a giant pencil, flying paper, a UFO, stacks of books, cows, scissors, a rubber duck, a board game path, and dozens of quirky characters and objects scattered across a grassy landscape. The clouds, the sun, and a few other objects are taped to the background, implying the world they inhabit is completely drawn on paper.

Project Description

Home is my younger self. Little Kai lived in paper, tape, and band-aids if they were out of tape. Their imagination has become the foundation I often return to today as a reminder that we often create the world we live in. Not so focused on the external, but our inner worlds that undoubtedly reflect outward. I grew up in my grandmother’s pink house, and in that house, I created everything I ever needed.

Medium

Digital drawing

Location

Riverfront KC Streetcar Shelter

Bio

Kai Johnson (they/them) is an illustrator and designer based in Kansas City, Missouri, with a deep passion for mental health advocacy and creative self-expression. With eight years of freelance experience, Kai designed patches for KC Current’s Pride Collection, a tifo and hand-painted banner for the Google Pixel x NWSL Championship in 2024, a mental health journal for children, wrestling merchandise and uniforms, a flower press, and portraits. In their spare time, Kai loves to indulge in early 2000’s cartoons and roller skating.

Website | kaistoodios.com

Instagram | @kaistoodios

Seasons of Home by Kevin VanEmburghFour abstract paintings displayed side by side. Each densely covered in small, irregular brushstrokes that blend into gradient color fields: pink and teal, orange-red and blue, yellow-green and orange, and green and pink.A digital illustration of a man in flowing orange robes and a red cap playing a Nigerian talking drum. The scene is set against an abstract background of sweeping shapes in blue, orange, and yellow.Carried by Sound by Anjola Ayodele